Hansjoerg Wyss is among the most philanthropic people in the world, with charitable foundations that have assets of nearly $2 billion. Wyss' fortue stems from his 2012 sale of medical device manufacturer Synthes -- which he founded -- to Johnson & Johnson for $20.2 billion in cash and stock. He's been ramping up his giving since the Synthes sale. In 2014, he pledged $120 million to two Swiss universities,

University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, to establish a center to accelerate medical breakthroughs. In 2013, he pledged $125 million to Harvard University -- on top of the $125 million he contributed to the university in 2009 to establish a biological institute bearing his name to research how nature builds, controls and makes things. The longtime Wyoming resident and noted conservationist also donated $4.25 million in 2013 to The Trust for Public Land, a U.S. nonprofit group, to purchase oil and gas leases on 58,000 acres of land in Wyoming's Hoback Basin to protect it from development. In 2014, a U.S. Senate investigation into offshore tax evasion -- which did not implicate Wyss -- revealed emails from Wyss' private bankers at Credit Suisse bickering over custody of his Synthes' sale proceeds. It also revealed that his daughter Amy had a fortune of $1.8 billion and that Wyss had liquidated much of his Johnson & Johnson stock before the company's recent rally. Those two factors explain the steep drop in Forbes' estimate of Wyss' net worth since March 2014. Over the years, Wyss has been an international elections observer in Kenya, an outspoken African peace advocate and a generous contributor to many European museums.

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